ZachTheZip

I would LOVE to have your thought process on how you come to that conclusion!?! Can you please explain for each candidate? BTW, four years from now, the new coach will have all of "their players" no matter who it is.Just my feelings. I just get the feeling that they'll try to put something in place that we don't have the personell for, and we'll get the line that the program has to be "built" in order for it to be successful like it was at their previous school. Plus they always focus too much on one side of the ball, whatever side they were coaching before, and then hire a coordinator that essentially becomes a second head coach for the other side of the ball. I don't see that happening if you go after a successful head coach at a smaller school because they've already gone through the "learning experience" phase and can handle managing an entire team and not just one side of it.

I don't see anyone on that list besides Winters that strikes me as a coach who would be successful next season. They all seem like the people who would try to blow up the program and start from scratch trying to bring in "their system" with "their players".

Check your PMs.

Didn't Mark Snyder just get fired for sucking at Marshall? Does anybody really want to hire a coach that was fired for losing too many games? I don't want this job to be a reward for one of Wistrcill's buddies like Wisconsin OC Paul Chryst. In fact, I don't want any coordinator, let alone a position coach. How can a position coach possibly be prepared to manage an entire team?If we do go that route, I think that Paul Winters will be the first guy we'll call once this next coach gets fired for underperforming.

Coach Porter on the first half of the game: There's a level even higher than that?

Tulsa beats Northwestern 1-0. So much for the Zips getting revenge.

Here are the MAC coaching salaries for 2009JD was the second lowest paid coach in the MAC. Akron has committed so much to athletics already, but it's all for naught if they won't pay for a good coach.$400k is a reasonable amount, and ahead of every MAC team but Temple.

More here on Luke from rivals So he's a good recruiter, but can he coach at all?

Just some another name to throw out there:Shawn Watson, Offensive Coordinator, Nebraska

Football is the biggest sport, like it or not. It is the only sport we have that can draw over 5,000 fans to an event, period. It is the engine that drives the athletic department. If this hire comes at a slight cost to other sports, it will have to happen. If football is successful it will more than pay back anything that might have been skimmed off the top of another sport's budget.

I know of only one player who is leaving, and he announced it more than a couple weeks ago.

I've met a few guys on the coaching staff, all of them were good guys. I know that they were frustrated at least as much as we were over this season. But it's time to go in a different direction.I wish them all the best. There are plenty of guys that will find a spot on another staff next season, if Akron decides not to keep any of them.

I found some references to schools that turned him down, but not to schools that he turned down. Do you have any specifics on that?In any case, if we are talking the amount of money it would take to get him to UA, that opens a whole new world of potential coaches who would consider UA for the big bucks. But why even consider a big bucks coach if UA doesn't have big bucks to offer?Is this discussion realistic or pie in the sky?That's the conundrum. Either you spend the big bucks and upgrade the candidate pool, or hope you find a diamond n the rough that doesn't mind being payed peanuts for a few years.You want to tell the MAC that you're ready to leapfrog them permanently, you spend the money like Temple and Ohio are doing. You want to stay in the MAC and risk everything that the stadium is supposed to bring just to save a few bucks in the near term, then put away the wallets.

There are a few head coaching spots open this year. Memphis is set to announce their new head coach already: Larry Porter from LSU. Western Kentucky has announced Stanford's RB coach Willie Taggart as their new HC.Notre Dame is looking around, but I think that their candidate pool won't overlap with Akron's.Kansas, UNLV, and Louisville are still actively searching.

Fired for 47-51 in 8 3/4 seasons. Although they went to bowl games in five of the last six years.I don't think that's the case about five of the last six years. They haven't been to a Bowl game since our meeting in the Motor City Bowl I don't think. He did go to a Bowl game in 3 of his first 4 years however.Since you sparked my curiosity:2003: Tigers end 32-year bowl drought, beating North Texas in the New Orleans Bowl to finish 9-4.2004: Tigers finish 8-4, including a loss to Bowling Green in the GMAC Bowl.2005: Tigers finish 7-5, including a Motor City Bowl victory over Akron. All-American Williams rushes for 233 yards and three touchdowns to win bowl MVP honors.2007: Tigers finish 7-6 and return to postseason with a New Orleans Bowl loss to Florida Atlantic.2008: Tigers finish 6-7, including St. Petersburg Bowl loss to South Florida.Tommy West TimelineLooks like he's moving backward.

Why was he fired? It had better be a great reason if Akron is going to go after a person who was fired from the exact same position for failure to perform.

Looks like a spelling error at Sporting News.Luke Fickell is linebacker coach and assistant defensive coordinator at Columbus State. There was an interesting PD story about him earlier this year.PD LinkGreat. That's just what we need. A position coach. If we're going the coordinator route, we should at least go for someone who has experience coaching half a team. The actual defensive coordinator, not an assistant of an assistant of the head coach.

A school usually honors their scholarship offer, even if the person who recruited them is gone. It's the right thing to do. However, if a player chooses to leave there are no hard feelings.

Who the hell's Luck Fickell? I don't want any assistant or coordinator. None.I want a person who already has the full experience of being a successful head coach at the college level. I'm tired of having coaches go through "learning periods".

I'll be keeping an eye here for any rumors about a new HC

French said during the EMU game that the Zips are the 3rd youngest team in the country (according to the 2-deep) right now. That has to factor in somehow. If we retain our coaching staff for another year, we might see a big improvement. Or we might not. It's a gamble, something that the AD will have to decide on.

The game sold out last night. If you don't have a ticket already, it's too late.I believe that it will be the first game ever at Lee Jackson Field without a walk-up crowd. All the previous sell-outs saw a significant amount of people buying a ticket at the gate.

If we offer a 2-year accelerated program, why not offer a 4-year program as well? We already have the curriculum, the facilities, and the professors.

Stanford fans aren't really that enthusiastic about making the Sweet 16. Then again, their women's team is even farther into the tournament and that's a home game for them, instead of being 2500 miles away.